The new additions

7/5/25

I waited about a week to see whether my initial pumpkin test subject would thrive in the plant box. I saw that the pumpkin was doing well. There was no new damage to the plant, no clear pests, and the pumpkin was continuing to grow. The watering from the sprinkler system (in combination with rain water) was sufficient and the pumpkin received good sunlight. I decided that I could now add more plants to the garden to see how they would do. I first added a pepper plant that I was previously growing in a pot (shown below). Next, I added another pumpkin about 20 inches away from my initial pumpkin.

Details

While I was in the front yard, hosing down the roots from my pepper plant, I noticed something odd underneath my porch. I noticed a small plant with leaves straining towards the sun that looked oddly similar to a pumpkin. Upon further inspection, I realized that this small plant was indeed a pumpkin plant! One of the pumpkin seeds must have fallen between the cracks of the porch above as I was planting seeds in my pots and somehow grown! I decided to give this small pumpkin a chance to grow with actual sunlight exposure, so I also moved him to the garden box in my backyard. The pumpkin plant is doing better in his new home. The pumpkin under my porch is shown below.

After a couple of days, all of the new additions to my garden box were doing well. Then, a disaster struck! A large hailstorm came through and damaged some of the plants. To protect the plants, I put a tarp over them, but some damage was still sustained. The large size hail in my region of Colorado poses a major threat to plants. Unfortunately for the starting pumpkin, one of his stems broke as a result of the hail (shown below). Besides the hail, the plants are doing well, and I will be adding more pumpkin plants and other plants to the garden box soon.